


Ice Ice (Baby)

by shishiswordsman



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: An Overdose of Hugs, Digital Art, Family Fluff, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kid Fic, Kid Lance (Voltron), Lance is Cute, POV Alternating, Protectiveness, Team as Family, gotta love how those two tags are next to each other, this will be cute i swear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-09-30 17:17:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10167920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shishiswordsman/pseuds/shishiswordsman
Summary: The Blue Pilot's shoes become too big for Lance to fill. Literally.(Yes, it's a kidfic. Sue me.)





	1. I'm Not an Expert, but Is This How Cryo Pods Are Supposed to Work?

It started with a firefight.

Breaking into the base was hard, nigh impossible. Most Galran bases tended to be guarded tighter than the king's jewels, so it didn’t come as a surprise — it’d be more alarming to find a base left vulnerable.

Especially one that held something as precious as a paladin of Voltron.

The corridors, lit by dim purple lights, were empty save for the few pairs of feet that stuck out from a closet of some sort. Purple blood stained the walls, and sounds of a fight echoed loudly from the distance.

The trail of destruction led to three Paladins, clad in armour that was burnt and nicked around the edges. They’d fought their way through a mass of Galran foot patrols, and now only a control panel and a wall stood between them and what they’d come to retrieve.

A strong explosion rocked the ship and reverberated from wall to wall. Keith was forced to brace himself against a wall lest he’d lose his balance, and next to him, Shiro did the same. Pidge was already sitting on the floor, her legs crossed as she typed furiously on her handheld.

“There’s records of every prisoner here,” she started. “I’ll try to decode them, give me a minute.” Her brows knitted together as she got in the zone, and Keith had to bite his tongue to not rush her. She flipped through the files so fast that they seemed like a blur to him, until one caught her eye and she stopped. Pidge frowned. “I think this is the one. There’s no name listed.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Shiro said. His mouth was drawn in a tight line, and Keith could tell that he was just as impatient for results as he was. “Where?”

Pidge bit her lower lip and tapped a few more commands on the screen. She had a rough translator program running on her own handheld, and it only took a few ticks to complete. “Down the hall, two rights and a left. It’s the last cell there.”

Shiro said nothing, already marching down the corridor and further into the Galran warship, and Pidge stayed back by the screen, making sure she’d left no traces of them being there. Keith waited with her, with his bayard drawn and activated, and the blade casted a soft red glow on his and Pidge’s armours. He kept his eyes trained on their surroundings, ready to pounce at the first hint of movement.

The hallways were quiet save for the sound of the distant fight, but Keith still didn’t buy into the lie. Any minute now a patrol could run up to them, guns blazing, and Keith couldn’t afford to take an injury. Not now, not with the stakes so high.

When Pidge was done, she tapped a few buttons and the control panel died completely, rendering it unusable for anyone who’d try to track them later. She got up, bayard in hand, and they started jogging to catch up to Shiro. They passed many unnamed cells, some holding innocent people inside and some empty. Some had bloodstains of different colours on their walls and floors, but Keith kept running, tried to ignore the sight.

It wasn’t so easy for Pidge, who stalled when they were about to turn a corner to a new hallway of cells after cells. “There’s a lot of people here, they need help,” Pidge ventured. “They’re innocent. Do you think we could take them with us?”

“That’s not a part of the plan.”

“But I didn’t even have the time to find a roster, we don’t know who’s —”

“I know what you’re thinking, Pidge, and I get it. But we have a job to do here.” Keith didn’t spare her as much as a glance, but his tone softened. “We’ll come back for them.”

Pidge’s mouth dropped open and angry protests climbed their way to her tongue, but Keith raised his hand to silence her — someone was coming.

Without a word, Keith stepped out from the shadows to intercept a Galran patrol just as they rounded a corner. Pidge took out a couple of them by slamming her bayard mercilessly to their flanks and necks while Keith ran his sword through the remaining Galrans. They could hear more running over, and both Paladins were made acutely aware of how close a cut this would be.

Pidge stated the obvious. “We have to hurry!”

She started running toward the end of the hall, Keith close behind her. The last cell’s door was torn off its hinges, with a couple of Galrans lying on the floor in a tangle of limp and broken bodies. Shiro was standing in the middle of the room, his entire body tensed and nearly shaking. Keith and Pidge made their way over to him, and Pidge cursed harshly under her breath.

Lance was strapped to a panel on the wall with dark metal cuffs around his wrists, ankles, chest, and even his neck. There was an IV of some sort – although this one was different, Keith was pretty sure – in his arm, dripping something gooey and pink into his bloodstream. The skin near the needle glowed an ominous purple. Keith didn’t know shit about medicine, really, but even he knew that that had to be a Bad Thing with a capital B.

Otherwise, Lance looked… Well, not unharmed, but alive, and he had all his limbs too, which kind of counted as a win when dealing with the Galra. His lip was split and bruises blossomed on his skin like constellations in the sky, but he was okay. Lance was breathing, and they would get him out of here.

“We have to get him to the Castle,” Shiro said, his voice laced with anxiety and worry. “There must be a way to get those cuffs of him.”

Keith didn’t need much more prompting. He rushed over to Lance, activating his bayard with the intentions to cut those damned cuffs off his fellow paladin. Before he had the time to attack, Shiro’s Galra arm blocked his sword.

The Black Paladin shook his head. “We can’t just cut them off. They could be booby-trapped or something.”

Keith gulped down the lump in his throat, and slowly put his bayard away. “Yeah. You’re right.”

Muttering something too low for Keith to hear, Pidge nodded in agreement and dashed away, presumably to find a control panel or something of the like to mess with.

Keith cast his eyes up at Lance, who was hanging limply from his restraints. He looked peaceful, like he was asleep instead of unconscious, almost. Keith could see his chest moving slightly up and down, and he fixated on the soothing movement for half a tick.

At the very least they should get that needle out of Lance’s body, Keith decided. Lance hated needles. He pulled it away from Lance’s skin as gently as possible, noting that it was oddly long and dissolved immediately when he removed it. Tendrils of purplish pink remained even after the needle was gone; climbing up Lance’s forearm and glowing under his skin and in his veins.

“Gross,” Keith muttered. Next to him, Shiro eyed Lance from head to toe, taking in every cut and bruise. There was an almost tangible pain etched to every line on his face, and Keith’s heart twanged with sympathy. Shiro looked like he wanted to run away, or like he wanted to hurl out what little food goo he’d eaten before leaving.

Keith could relate, in some way, but he knew this situation was more personal, more intimate to Shiro than it ever could be to him.

For almost a dobosh or two, all Shiro did was try and leverage the cuffs open. “It’s no use,” he grunted eventually. “It’s just messing up my hand, it sparks electricity or some kind of energy. We need to find another way to get them off him.”

“I’ll cut the damn wall, how about that,” Keith ground out.

Shiro was about to say something - maybe ask Pidge for her expert opinion - when a voice crackled to life in their helmets. “Guys,” Hunk spoke into the coms. Keith could hear the sounds of a battle in the background. “We’re running out of time. How’s it looking there? Did you find Lance? Is he okay?”

The look on Shiro’s face was equal parts a grin and a grimace. “Yes, we found him. We’re working on getting him out of his cuffs now.”

“Good. Try to hurry, though, I don’t know how much more of this Yellow or the Castle can take.”

“We’ll do what we can. Hang on tight until —”

There was a crash behind them, and Keith and Shiro turned around just in time to see Pidge surrounded by puffs of smoke. Her entire face was blackened by the small explosion, and her eyebrows were singed, but her grin was triumphant.

She held a cable in her hand, torn off the control panel. But still, the cuffs refused to open. Pidge glared at the cable for a second before yanking another seemingly random wire from the wall. The cuffs stayed put, still, and Pidge groaned in frustration.

“Can you get them open or not?” Keith asked, a bit more snappishly than he’d intended to. His patience was running thin.

“Shut up, I got this.” The way Pidge evil-eyed the cuffs and the control panel left Keith no doubts that they’d open. Out of fear if nothing else.

Pidge tapped a couple of buttons, and when they did nothing but beep angrily in protest, she cursed loudly and pulled out her bayard. There was another crash and a lot of smoke. The cuffs opened and Lance fell forward, his entire body limp and pliable like, well. Keith’s first thought was to compare it to food goo, but that was probably a bad analogy.

Shiro caught him in his arms, and Lance’s head lolled against his shoulder. “Nice job, Pidge,” he commended.

Pidge flashed them a cocky grin. “I said I got this.”

“We didn’t doubt you.” Shiro put his fingers on Lance’s neck, testing for his pulse. After few ticks of tense anticipation, he gave a fast thumbs up. “We’ve got Lance,” he said out loud so Hunk, Allura and Coran would hear the news as well. “He’s fine. We’re bringing him back now.”

On the other end of the line, they heard Hunk swallow a huge, shuddering sob. His wide, relieved grin was audible in his voice. “I— uh. Good, I’m glad. Bring him back.”

“You got it, Hunk.”

Allura spoke next. “As wonderful as that is, we cannot celebrate yet. We still need to secure your return.” Her voice was softer when she continued. “I will have a wormhole prepared by the time you get back home with Lance. Nonetheless, please make haste, Paladins; time is of the essence.”

Shiro was fast to agree and reassure the Princess that they’d be back as soon as possible, which surprised a total of absolutely no one. Allura could probably blink in a certain way and Shiro would run over, asking how high he should jump for her. Whipped fucker.

Pidge was fiddling with the control panels, downloading something onto her own hard drive for later inspection. She had already collected a bag of whatever weird and slimy gunk had been pumped into Lance — hopefully Coran would be able to scan and analyse it, somehow. With all the tech they had in the Castle, Keith would be shocked if they couldn’t. Hell, they somehow had Netflix in space, or some equivalent of it. How hard could decrypting some measly files be?

Shiro hoisted Lance up on his shoulder carefully, acting like he was handling a small, vulnerable child instead of being a Paladin of Voltron. Lance didn’t make a sound. He didn’t even twitch. His silence was unnatural, and it gave Keith the heebie-jeebies like no one’s business. He almost wished Lance would open his eyes and launch into a story or yell Hunk about his puns or… anything. Wow, now that the impossible had happened and everyone actually _wanted_ him to say something stupid or make a bad joke, he was silent. Only Lance, really.

A part of Keith desperately wanted to get to the Castle so they could stick Lance in a healing pod and be done with it. Lance would be back to annoying the living shit out of everyone by dinner. Another part of him, however, lingered on the bruises and abrasions scattered on Lance’s skin. That part wanted to find every single purple bastard on the ship and tear them apart for hurting his teammate, limb from limb.

That part reached out for his bayard and activated it. He could indulge the bloodthirsty part while also making sure Lance would get to the Castle, right? It was the best of both worlds. And now, that was some Hannah Montana-esque shit Keith wouldn’t even know about without Lance.

The sounds of the fight still echoed in the hallway as they half-marched, half-jogged back to the hangars, where the Green Lion waited for them. It was the only one capable of sneaking past the warship’s defences with its cloaking technology.

Shiro carried Lance the entire way there, his focus flitting from corner to corner and back to Lance’s face. Every time he looked down at Lance, only to find him unconscious and as unresponsive as before, his expression and composure seemed to crumple more and more.

A couple of Galran patrols attempted to stop them, but they didn’t get far. Keith cut them down before they even had the chance to realise it, and they stepped over their unconscious – or worse, but Keith didn’t want to think about that – bodies. And then they were in the Green Lion, heading home.

Lance was laid down behind the pilot’s seat, his head rested on top of some blankets Pidge apparently kept in her Lion for all-nighters or long distance missions. Lance drew in raspy but even breaths, and for a long time that sound was the only thing Keith paid any attention to.

Five days was a long time when they were spent fretting over whether your favourite annoyance was still alive or not.

Allura and Coran’s faces took up one screen on the Green Lion, and Hunk’s nostrils filled the other one. He was leaning too close in his hurry to see his best friend back, in one piece. He couldn’t believe his eyes, and said as much out loud, too. Pidge opened another feed for him, so Hunk could see Lance’s face clearly. Allura and Coran asked questions that Pidge answered to as well as she could, but Keith tuned it all out. He met eyes with Shiro briefly, and the exhausted but happy look on the Black Paladin’s face mirrored Keith’s.

They were finally all together again.

* * *

Allura and Coran were there to meet them in the Green Lion’s hangar. They had brought a hover stretcher with them, and Lance was quickly lifted on it. From there on out, it was all a blur to Keith. Coran took the sample of ominously-glowing-mystery-sludge from Pidge while Allura ran tests on Lance. He seemed alright, she said, but there was an undertone to her words that caught Keith’s attention; a silent ‘for now’.

Hunk flat out sobbed at the sight of Lance, alive and home. The tears were born out of overwhelming relief and a mix of other emotions Hunk himself probably couldn’t name, including utter rage at the sight of what the Galrans had done to their friend.

It was only after Lance was floating safely in the healing pod’s protective blue light that Hunk allowed anyone to pay any attention to his own injuries. It turned out that Yellow had taken reckless amounts of damage in its mission to divert the Galras’ attention from the rescue force, and both the Lion and its Paladin were in rough shape.

After some lieu of protests about it not being a big deal and how he’d be fine with some sleep and food goo, Hunk let Coran assess the damage done. He had a couple of broken ribs and a twisted ankle, but he hadn’t voiced a single complaint. Which was something Coran admonished him mercilessly for, of course.

All the while, Keith sat on the floor with his arms wrapped around his knees, staring intently at Lance’s pod. He was so still. Coran said that per the scans he’d stay in the pod for a good while, too, which Keith found curious. Lance hadn’t been _that_ injured, had he?

Hours passed. Keith didn’t move, but Shiro joined him after he’d debriefed with Allura. He brought two plates of food goo with them, but both went untouched. Pidge joined them too, her arms filled with cables and notebooks and other equipment. Coran followed, carrying her laptop with utmost care. She set to work at Keith’s feet, legs crossed and lips pursed. Coran hovered over the three paladins for a while until he resigned himself to just sit in a chair that popped out of the wall.

Allura was the last to find her way to the others. She stalked in when Hunk was nearly ready to leave the pod, and she sat down beside Coran. At some point, she relocated closer to Pidge so she could keep tabs on her progress with the Galran logs she had snagged with her. The translation and decrypting would take days, but neither Pidge nor Allura had any patience for that bullshit. Keith expected that the files would be readable in half the time.

When Hunk was ready to come out of the pod, it was almost dinnertime. By then, Keith had hoped they would all be together again, awake and joking around and poking fun at Lance for getting captured in the first place. He should stop throwing himself in harm’s way, seriously; didn’t he realise that they’d have a hard time forming Voltron _without a goddamn leg?_

The cryo pod opened with a hiss of air, and Hunk fell out of it, eyes half-lidded and his body repaired. He was met with a bear hug from Shiro, who guided the Yellow Paladin to sit down next to Keith. After he’d fought off his post-cryo disorientation and dizziness, Hunk ate both plates of food goo and then disappeared to the kitchen to whip up something delicious for when Lance would be ready to come out.

It was nearly two am CMT (castle mean time) when there was any change in Lance’s condition. Pidge had called it a night around one am, curling up with a hoodie as her blanket and Hunk’s arm as her pillow. Hunk was sleeping as well. He’d baked a bunch of pastries that were under strict lock and key until Lance would wake up and could be the first one to taste them. They were pink, Hunk had mentioned, but that shouldn’t affect the taste. Keith was sure they’d be delicious.

He didn’t sleep — or, he couldn’t. Unspoken questions lingered in the air and kept swirling in Keith’s head. What had the Galrans done to Lance that warranted a stay of almost ten hours in the healing pod? What was that liquid they’d filled his veins with? Nutrients to keep him alive, maybe, or poison to weaken him? Would the pod be able to clear his system of it? What else had the Galrans done to Lance?

Five days was a long time to spend with the Druids.

Shiro was awake as well, but neither acknowledged their shared sleeplessness. If Keith had had to venture a guess, he’d say that Shiro’s thoughts followed the same tracks as his; worry for their teammate stealing all focus. In fact, they had both fallen deep enough into their own thoughts that they failed to notice the sudden drop in temperature.

It was almost four am when the air in the infirmary went from cool to chilly to holy-fuck-it’s-cold, all the way to hell’s frozen over. It happened gradually, and the shared warmth of their huddle lasted long enough for the first layer of ice to form on the healing pod. It climbed the pod’s surface in small, beautiful fractal patterns; licking the metal of the pod and ensnaring Lance inside. The ice framed his face, inching closer and closer until it hid him from view entirely.

The sound of the ice forming out of thin air cracked in the room, and it woke Keith from his stupor. He sat up straighter and noticed Shiro doing the same. Lines of ice started darting from the healing pod to every direction, smaller trails of frost forming patterns on the floor as it advanced. Keith pounced up, startling Hunk, who in turn woke up Pidge as he jumped to sit up.

“What the fuck,” Pidge mumbled as she rubbed sleep from her eyes. She gaped comically at the ice age-y scene, and repeated her question again, more quietly. _“What the fuck?”_

“Is the pod malfunctioning?” Shiro said. “Coran?”

“This is most unusual,” Coran rushed to say. “This is not how the cryo pods are supposed to function, it must be —”

“Who cares what it is, we gotta get Lance out of there, now!” Keith snapped. Thick and white pillars of ice had formed on the healing pod by then, so that it looked more like an iceberg than a cryo pod.

 

 

Spirals of frost danced around the pod, nearing the Paladins. Keith’s could see his own breath coming out in warm puffs of steam, twirling with the freezing air.

Keith’s feet slipped on the ice, but somehow he made it to the pod without falling. The ice was nearly painful against his skin, and hacking at it with his bayard did little good. He slashed at it again and pounded his fist on the ice, scraping the skin of his fingers on its sharp edges.

Shiro tried to tear the layers of fast-forming ice off with his Galra hand, but it was no use. Instead, the ice kept growing, climbing higher and higher until the pillar reached the ceiling. Soon the whole room would be frozen solid.

“The pod won’t respond to any commands!” Allura exclaimed incredulously. “I’m unsure of how this is possible, but… I cannot get the pod to open. _We can’t get Lance out.”_

Keith felt panic bubble in the back of his mind, and he drowned it under urgent fury. He hacked at the ice harder, until his palms were rubbed red and his bayard was stained with small droplets of blood from the force of his strikes.

It didn’t work. They’d have to leave the room soon, leave Lance behind in the pod, all alone and captured again; imprisoned in his own home.

Keith would have none of that.

“Watch out!” someone shouted, and Keith twirled around. It was Hunk. Hunk with his _humongous goddamn Gatling gun,_ out and charging. “Get outta the way!” he roared, and the second Keith jumped out of the line of fire, his bayard sang.

Three shots were all it took to blast the ice off Lance’s pod, and the heat of them melted most of the ice around it too; leaving behind sizzling puddles of steaming water. Hunk let out a huge breath of sheer relief.

Allura pressed a button, and the now freed healing pod hissed and popped open. The figure falling out of it was almost concealed in the billows of steam. Shiro rushed to catch Lance before he’d hit the water, and he managed to sneak his arms under the Blue Paladin just in time.

“Good, you got him,” Hunk said. “Let’s get out of here, I need to figure out what caused that malfunction. Man, it’s like we angered the castle again or something!” He turned to leave, and Keith was halfway through the motion as well. He stopped, though, and tilted his head back to look at Shiro.

Because Shiro still hadn’t said a word.

The steam surrounding Shiro and Lance was mostly cleared now, and Keith could see Shiro staring at his hands in disbelief. He heard Allura draw in a sharp breath, and Keith’s own jaw dropped open.

In Shiro’s arms was… It was Lance, but at the same time, it _wasn’t._

Because yes, the figure in Shiro’s arms was tanned and had matted dark brown hair, just like the Blue Paladin. He wore the same clothes, had the same features, and even the dopey, stupid look on his sleeping face was the same.

It was Lance, without a doubt. The only difference?

Lance was a bit over a metre tall at most, and the white bodysuit he had worn in the pod was now hanging off his body, way too large for his new size.

Lance had been turned into a kid. Somehow.

Behind him, Keith heard Pidge repeating her question again, and though her voice was a mere whisper, it bounced from wall to wall like a shout.

_What the fuck?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come yell at me on [my tumblr](http://shishiswordsman.tumblr.com/), though I gotta warn you that I blog like 50/50 One Piece and Voltron. I'll also post all artworks I do for this fic there, er... eventually.
> 
> This was betaed by my amazing and incredible friend [Emy!](http://archiveofourown.org/users/emygrl99/pseuds/emygrl99)
> 
> Thank you for reading, please tell me your thoughts :D I haven't written anything for Voltron before otl, i hope it's not totally shit.


	2. Freeze! (It's the Space Police)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk is very fond of the childhood memories he's made with Lance, he really is. He just didn't think he'd get to live them again like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to dedicate this chapter to two of my dear friends; Askornaut and Arinomi, who both had a birthday recently. Happy birthday, guys! I love you <3

Hunk had not met Lance until they were both eight and their moms had been assigned as study buddies in night school, but it had been love at first sight. They’d shared snacks, pranked their siblings and built and wrecked their first homemade space ship together. After years of being each other’s best friend and worst enabler, Hunk had Lance’s face and mannerisms memorised to the dot.

The child who’d fallen out of the healing pod looked exactly like he remembered his best friend to be as a kid. Unruly dark hair, the gap between his teeth, even the scar on his leg from that time he was four and his older sister whacked him with a shovel… Everything was the same.

Hunk just had a hard time believing it.

Everyone gaped at the suddenly much smaller Blue Paladin, asleep in Shiro’s arms, left speechless by it all. The infirmary was quiet enough that someone could drop a space needle on the command deck, and they’d still be able to hear the sound. Or, well, not a literal space needle as in _the_ Space Needle, but just, whatever aliens used as needles.

Probably regular needles. Hunk didn't really want to think about it. Anyway.

“What’s—” Pidge started. She was staring at Lance, thoroughly gobsmacked. “Is that…?”

Hunk finished her sentence for her. “Lance? It can’t be, right?”

“No, that is not Lance. Don’t be foolish,” Allura denied outright, but even she had to blink once, twice; like she didn’t trust her eyes. “Lance is much taller, and humans cannot shapeshift, so this can’t be...”

“Well, there’s but one way to find out, Princess,” Coran said, helpful as ever. “Let’s take him to the scanners.”

Allura nodded absently, and Coran began leading everyone out of the half-boiled, half-frozen infirmary. Hunk followed numbly, only able to watch as Shiro carried Lance out of the room. The child muttered something incomprehensible in his sleep, and Shiro smoothed a hand over his hair tentatively.

Hunk couldn’t quite wrap his head around it all. They’d brought a full grown – nearly, at least – nineteen-year-old Lance into the Castle with them. Hunk had seen it happen; he’d seen Lance enter the healing pod, and he definitely hadn’t looked like he was a kindergartener then. And yet… Hunk’s focus flickered to Lance, or who he assumed was Lance, anyway. It had to be, right? Either way, the paramount thing here was that Lance was back home, and the cryo pod had healed all signs of injury on his body. Anything else they could deal with in due time.

Coran took them to a room with a large machine that looked kind of like the MRI machines back on Earth. At Coran’s instructions, Shiro laid Lance down inside the egg-shaped scanner which then sealed around his body. A soft, blue light came to life in the machine, and the screens connected to it lit up. Coran tweaked his moustache and made some changes to the scan’s settings. “Alrighty then, we’ll get to the bottom of this in just a few short doboshes! This scanner is going to examine every cell in our little friend’s body, and then we’ll know for certain what has transpired.”

Hunk walked over to the scanner and leaned his hand against the glowing glass that now encased his best friend. Lance snuffled and snored in his sleep just like he’d done when they’d had sleepovers together as kids. The sight of it was eerie, and a shiver ran up Hunk’s spine.

“Where’s _our_ Lance? You know, the one who can ride the big boy rides?” Pidge asked. She was sitting on the desk next to the command panels, her knees tucked to her chest and her hair falling on her eyes. “I can’t think of any other explanation than that maybe the Galrans did something to him that caused this. But what was with all the ice?”

“No clue,” Hunk said honestly. “Man, he looks just like I remember. This is weird.”

“How was he reverted into a child?” Keith sounded suspicious, brows furrowed and arms crossed.

Pidge pinched her jaw in thought. "Maybe they Benjamin Buttoned him? You know, reversed his aging so he ages backwards. So, he’ll be seven-ish today and then six tomorrow, and then he’s a toddler and then…” Pidge gulped loudly and wringed her hands as the realisation of what ‘then’ implied dawned on her. “Er… never mind. Forget I said anything.”

Hunk groaned. “Pidge, c’mon. Why did you have to say something like that?”

“Sorry!”

Keith cleared his throat. “Anyway… This might not even be Lance. It could be an impostor or something - someone who can shapeshift into how Lance looked like as a kid. It’d make for a great distraction and create a tactical advantage. While we’re sorting this out, they’ll have time to strike unnoticed.”

“Not you too, Keith! Of course this is Lance.” Hunk frowned. Logically, he knew that Keith was just trying to be the voice of reason, but this was _Lance_. They’d been best friends for over ten years, Hunk would know if it wasn’t Lance. He totally would.

Allura seemed to consider Keith’s words, though. “If that is what’s happened here, we’ll learn soon enough,” she started. “This machine was designed to find hidden injuries and diseases in seemingly healthy bodies, but the technology is versatile. We can cross-reference the results with the scans taken of Lance during his latest visit to the healing pods, and that will tell us conclusively who and what we’re up against here.”

Pidge’s attention was immediately piqued by that, and she asked Coran to explain how the machine worked. At first it sounded interesting, and on another day Hunk would have been right there next to Pidge, eager to learn more about Altean technology, but not today. Hunk watched Lance’s chest rise and fall, lingering on the familiarly splattered freckles on his cheeks. They were exactly in the same places as he’d seen then on Lance just a week ago.

After a couple more ticks, the machine beeped and some numbers flashed on the screens, all in Altean. Hunk recognised some of the characters — the scans were complete. Allura and Coran examined the results intently, while Pidge tried to rubberneck at the readouts behind their backs, which looked rather silly considering how much shorter she was.

“The scans leave no doubt of it. This is Lance,” Allura said finally, but she hardly sounded like she believed her own words. “The tests were one hundred percent certain, there is no chance of err.”

“That’s settled, then. We have him back,” Shiro said, relieved. “Did the tests tell you what happened to him?”

Allura pulled up the results on the big holo-screens so everyone could see. “Unfortunately, no. The scanner was unable to find anything wrong with Lance’s health, only that his entire body has lapsed to what it was like over a decafeeb ago.”

“And nothing’s wrong with him?” Hunk asked. “Lance’s gonna be fine?”

“It would appear that way,” Coran said, almost cheerfully. “So fret not, Paladins. Lance will be up and about in no time!”

Hearing that was like having a weight lifted off Hunk’s shoulders, and he didn’t even bother to fight the smile that quickly rose to his face. He wanted to take Lance out of the pod and put him in an actual bed, or better yet, wake him up now. He hadn’t heard his friend’s voice in almost a week. Lance was way overdue for a good pun.

What Hunk tried not to think about was how his friend had spent the last week, or how badly he wanted to hug Lance and make sure he was okay.

“So, this is what human young look like?” Allura asked. “I have to admit that this Lance looks… Kind of cute, actually.”

Hunk grinned. “Of course he looks cute, it’s Lance! We were both super cute as kids; the lady down in the corner shop could not resist these charms, so it was free ice cream all day, every day.” He gave a short, embarrassed grin and rubbed the back of his head. “Until our moms found out. Boy, that wasn’t fun.”

Pidge’s yawn was cut off with a snorted laugh. “Man, I would have loved to see that. How long have you been friends?”

“Eleven years and counting,” Hunk said proudly. “There was a time when Lance’s family moved back to Cuba and we didn’t see each other for almost three years, but we were always close.”

Pidge nodded and yawned again, “He’s going to get a kick out of being a kid again, I bet. This has potential to get really annoying really fast.”

“You don’t say,” Keith muttered. “I hope this doesn’t last long.”

“I doubt it’s permanent,” Allura said. “I have never heard of any magic capable of completely turning the clock for someone, whereas shrinking technologies have been around for centuries. This would be the first time I’ve heard of them being used on live specimens, though.”

“That’s good.” Pidge mumbled. Her words came out a bit slurred, and she yawned into her sleeve.

Shiro gave her a look. “Are you tired?”

“No, nope, no way.” Pidge rubbed the back of her head, looking anyway that didn’t lead to Shiro.

Shiro quirked an eyebrow. “You sure about that.”

Pidge groaned. “Okay, yeah, you caught me. I’m beat.”

Shiro grinned and wrapped his arm around Pidge’s shoulders. “Thought so. It’s late, and I’m guessing that Lance will probably sleep until morning. We should catch some shuteye too, while we’re at it.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Keith agreed. He paused, suddenly looking a bit unsure of himself. “Maybe… Someone should stay with Lance, though; we can’t be sure if there will be aftereffects to his, er, _transformation_.”

“That’s an excellent idea! I’ll stay here and keep an eye on Lance!” Coran volunteered, “I’ll be sure to take proper care of him should he wake up before you do. It’s been ages since the Castle last saw child visitors, but I’m sure the good ol’ play corner still works. Do you remember that, Allura? You used to love the gladiators.”

“Yes, I remember. Father and I would fight them together. It was a wonderful pastime,” Allura said, a bit wistfully.

“Hold up,” Keith cut in. “You guys make little kids fight Gladiators? Isn’t that dangerous?”

Coran laughed. “Why, yes, there’s a version of them in the playground, just like the gladiators our training deck uses! They’re smaller of course, and I believe they use a more forgiving program, so there’s no danger. It was created by an old friend of mine; a brilliant engineer of our time. They created the Altean teaching bots, too!”

For some reason, Pidge blanched at that. “Coran,” she said seriously. “I can’t stress this enough. _Do not_ take Lance to the playground without a human.”

“If you insist. I could always dust off the Roflorkling, too,” Coran said. “Children always love a good roffling.”

“What is that supposed to — Nope, never mind, it’s not happening.” Keith sighed. “He should sleep with one of us instead. Coran’s going to kill him.”

“Are you volunteering?” Pidge teased. “You’re too bony to be a kid’s stuffed animal.”

Keith was quick to reply. “Ew, no. Someone else should do it. Lance is going to freak if he wakes up in my bed.”

“I’ll take him,” Hunk said confidently. “He can sleep in my room. It’ll be just like old times.”

“Okay,” Shiro agreed. “It’s almost three am, guys, let’s call it a night. We’ll see how Lance is doing in the morning.”

Scattered good night’s wishes echoed from the rest of the crew, and they got up to leave with groans and aching limbs. Shiro stayed behind long enough to watch as Hunk took Lance out of the scanner. He probably would have stayed longer, too, but Hunk sent him to bed with a glare.

If the bags under Shiro’s eyes got any worse, Lance really would have a heart attack when he finally woke up.

Hunk carried Lance over to his room gingerly, like he might break at the slightest jarring. Lance felt almost disturbingly light. He sat on his bed leaning against the wall, and laid his now mini-sized best friend at his feet, so that Lance’s head was pillowed by Hunk’s thigh.

Logically speaking, it was past three am and the day had been taxing, to say the least. Hunk should have been drooping by now with post cryo pod exhaustion, but now that he was in an actual bed, all dredges of sleep and tiredness were long gone from his mind. So Hunk sat there, one arm behind his head and the other resting gently on the crown of Lance’s head, as if to reassure himself that he was actually there.

Time passed like that; with Hunk sitting on the bed, his focus flitting from Lance to nothingness and back. The weight of Lance’s head on his thigh was nothing new, but it was weird. It was different.

Hunk’s mind wandered to last week, their last night together before the fight and Lance’s capture. They’d been sitting in the lounge, about to watch some movies Pidge had managed to torrent. _In space._ She was a miracle worker, which was something Lance had been eager to tell to everyone at exponentially increasing volumes. Pidge had been equal parts annoyed and pleased by all the praise, and she’d snapped at Lance to get him to stop running around in circles. It hadn't always been too successful.

When they finally got the movie to start playing, it was lagging and had no colours, and the audio came three seconds after the video. But it worked, and it was comprehensible. Lance was overjoyed.

They watched Mulan first, because it was Pidge and Keith’s favourite. Lance tried to talk Keith into letting him do his hair like Yao’s, which was something Keith protested vehemently, but he’d been pressured into sporting a pony tail by the time the movie ended. After that, it was Little Mermaid _(“No, Coran, it’s not a documentary,” Lance had explained, sounding utterly crestfallen. “Humans don’t actually have tails. I mean, I wish! That mermaid planet was the bomb.”)_ and last but not least they’d watched Lilo and Stitch.

By the time the credits rolled around, Hunk was sitting on the couch with Lance’s head pillowed in his lap, snoring and drooling on his pants. He listened to Keith talk about Disney films and conspiracy theories and how Walt Disney was definitely a furry. It was probably a talk they should have saved for a later date because Coran had then insisted on learning what a ‘furry’ was, and wow, that hadn’t been awkward at all.

It had been a memorable night, overall.

And then come next day, they’d been called to aid some previously freed planet, and they’d been ambushed. The Blue Lion had been taken out with an EMP, and Lance had been captured while everyone was still busied with the fight.

Hunk sighed. The past five days had been absolute agony, the only beacon of hope for them all being this moment; having Lance back. Except… Now Lance was a _child?_ Hunk would have been lying if he said he wasn’t a little disappointed — he’d been hoping this mess would be over with Lance’s return.

He must have dozed off at some point, because the next time Hunk looked up, the clock on his wall showed that it was almost nine am. Lance still showed no signs of waking up. Which was good, Hunk reminded himself; his best bud had been through some serious shit lately. It was just… easy to forget, in a way. His skin was now unblemished and his face looked so innocent, not to mention that he was so fricking small and frail and there was just no way that this was his cocky and loud friend; _his Lance._

Too lost in thought, Hunk didn’t notice Lance stirring.

“Mamá?” A voice called out, laced with sleep and uncertainty. “Dondé… Where are we?”

Hunk nearly fell off the bed. He stared at the small boy sitting on his bed, eyes blown comically wide, and Lance gawked back. They both opened their mouths at the same time, but neither had any words.

Well, this sure was harder than Hunk had thought.

“Lance, is that you buddy?” Hunk asked.

“Er, yeah. Who else?” Lance rubbed his tiny fist on his face. “Who are you?”

“I’m, uh,” Hunk paused. He needed a tick to compose himself, and Lance kept peering at him patiently, waiting for a reply. Hunk cleared his throat awkwardly. This was Lance-handling, his expertise — he had this in the bag.

“I’m Hunk,” he started softly, “We’re friends. You… you don’t remember me?”

“No. Should I?”

Hunk swallowed down his disappointment and framed a smile on his face. “Nah, it’s — it’s fine. Do you… How are you feeling?”

“’M sleepy,” Lance mumbled. “And my head feels funny. Where are we?”

“We’re at my house,” Hunk settled on saying after a moment’s hesitance. “You’re safe, Lance, everything’s fine. Your mom said you could hang out with me and my friends for a while.”

“Really? But my mom says I shouldn’t go with people I don’t know even if they say it’s okay. You could be a bad guy,” Lance said seriously, crossing his little arms.

“Your mom was always really smart,” Hunk muttered quietly. A metaphorical light bulb went off on top of his head, and he smiled. “But it’s okay! Because me and my friends are Space Cops, Lance; we’re the good guys. Isn’t that cool?”

Lance frowned. “How do you know my name?”

“Your mom told it to us when we came over to pick you up.”

“Huh. And you're Space Police?”

“Totally, yeah.”

“Cool.” But Lance didn’t look too impressed. Instead, he levelled the most serious expression his young face could muster, and sternly demanded, “I wanna see your badge.”

“What?”

“Your badge,” Lance explained. “All cops have one, right? I’ll know you’re the real deal if you show me. Mom says—”

“To check the badges,” Hunk filled in, and he could actually hear the words in Lance’s mom’s voice. “I know.”

“So?”

“So...” Hunk repeated, stalling for time because okay no, what was he going to show Lance to convince him? His bayard?

Lance looked ready to dart out the door if Hunk wouldn’t magically procure a police badge in the next three ticks, but he repeated himself patiently. “Where’s your badge, mister?”

“I don’t have it on me,” Hunk said quickly, scrambling for words to keep Lance in the room before the kid escaped and got lost in the training deck, or worse; ran into Allura or Coran and their weird views on child care. Or he could wander into an airlock, or… the possibilities were limitless, really. This was Lance, for goodness’ sake.

Hunk composed himself quickly. “I left my badge someplace, but I’ll find it for you. Or I can take you to the Space Police chief, if you’d like. He can show you _all_ our badges.”

Lance fidgeted and shook his head. “I’m not going. And I wanna go home now.”

“I know, buddy,” Hunk sighed. “But you don’t have to be scared, it’s okay. I promise.”

Lance pursed his lips in thought for a moment, and then looked up at Hunk. “Pinkie promise?”

Hunk grinned, and Lance’s lips curved in a small smile, too. “You got it, pal.”

Hunk’s pinkie felt huge wrapped around Lance’s, and the act seemed to calm the kid for the time being. He still insisted that he’d need to see something akin to a badge, though, or his mom would hand him his ass on a platter. He may not have used those exact words, but that was the gist of it.

“You okay to walk? Does anything hurt?” Hunk asked.

Lance hopped off the bed and bounced up and down energetically, “I’m fine! Take me to your leader, alien Hunk!”

Despite his enthusiasm, or perhaps because of it, Hunk had to hold up a hand to stop Lance before he got the chance to run off. He was still wearing the adult-sized cryo pod suit from yesterday and it hugged the ground at his feet, threatening to show certain pieces of human anatomy one couldn’t show on a cartoon show. Hunk figured his clothes would be equally as bad a fit, but he borrowed Lance one of his old tees anyway. Lance didn’t seem too pleased with the old, faded yellow shirt, but Hunk promised that they’d find him better matching clothes later.

Once Hunk gave him the all clear, Lance whooped and left the Yellow Paladin in his dust. Hunk raced after him to the hallways, where Lance abruptly stopped, glancing around himself with his brow furrowed in confusion. He looked over his shoulder at Hunk and cocked his head slightly, which Hunk thought was pretty darn adorable.

“You didn’t tell me where your base is, alien Hunk.”

Smiling, Hunk started to lead the way. “Is that going to be a thing now? I’m human just like you, you know.”

“Oh. Human Hunk, then. Or no, wait I thought of something even better.” Lance let out a small giggle. _“Hunkman._ ”

“Stooop.”

The others were having breakfast in the kitchen, and Hunk could hear them talking to each other. Lance heard them, too — he slowed his pace and stood just behind the doorframe, peeking inside at the people he couldn't remember but used to call family. He rocked on his heels and looked at Hunk apprehensively. “So these are your friends? And they're good guys, too?”

Hunk hoped the smile on his face was warm and reassuring. “Yeah! Let's go say hi.”

“Okay.”

Hunk was reaching out to knock on the metal wall to alert the others that they were no longer alone, and not naming names but _stop swearing, Pidge_ , when something small grabbed his hand. Hunk cast his eyes down at his palm, gaping first at Lance and then at the smaller hand that he was now holding.

Lance looked unsure of himself, and Hunk resisted the urge to wrap him in a tight hug. “C’mon, buddy. They'll love you, I'm sure.”

‘They already do,’ he added as an afterthought to himself, and then he led Lance into the kitchen, still holding his tiny hand.

By now, Shiro had made note of their arrival, and he’d poked the others enough that everyone’s attention was on Lance and Hunk as they stepped inside. They must have hatched some kind of plan when they were still alone, because everyone simply sat in place and allowed Lance and Hunk to make their way over at Lance’s pace.

Shiro raised an eyebrow in question, and Hunk shook his head — no, Lance didn’t remember them. The Voltron crew all deflated slightly at the news, but they didn’t let it show long enough for Lance to notice.

The grip on Hunk’s hand got even tighter for half a tick, and then it was gone. Lance smiled broadly and waved at the others. “Hi, I’m Lance! But you can just call me awesome.”

Small bouts of laughter cascaded from the Paladins, and for once Lance’s usual bravado was welcomed.

Shiro was the first to approach them. He smiled, moving slowly and with hands held in plain sight, as if he was approaching a frightened animal. Hunk thought it was overdoing it; Lance was fine!

Shiro smiled “Hello, Lance. I'm Shiro.”

“He’s the commander I told you about,” Hunk informed Lance, sending a meaningful look Shiro’s way. “He’s my boss.”

Shiro seemed relatively uncomfortable at being called boss, but he rolled with it. “Oh. Yeah, I’m the leader of —”

“The Space Police.”

“Ah, yes. That.”

The rest of the crew lingered nearby to make their own introductions, and Pidge pulled Hunk aside while Lance was busied with that. “Space Cops? What did you tell him?”

Hunk shrugged. “The truth, mostly.”

 _“The truth?”_  Pidge hissed, keeping her voice low enough for Lance not to hear. “Hunk, are you out of your damn mind? What kind of bullshit is that?”

“He took it surprisingly well, actually. He wants to see a badge, though.”

“That’s still really stupid.” Pidge pushed her glasses up her nose and huffed. Hunk could already see the gears turning in her head, though.

“Can you do it?”

“Yeah. Say no more.”

She started fiddling with a small screen, presumably making a quick space-photoshop edit of their images. Hunk turned his attention back to Lance, who was now talking to Keith, who was... Okay then. For some reason, Keith was showing his very much activated bayard to Lance, who ogled at it with an awestruck smile.

“You use a sword?” Lance asked. “That’s so cool, Keith! You’re _amazing_.”

Although Keith appeared flummoxed by the obvious lack of rivalrous bickering, he took it in stride. “You’re pretty cool yourself, dude.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Lance squinted at the sword thoughtfully. “Guns would be more convenient, though.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “You’d think so. But swords are _way_ more badass, Lance, can’t you see that?”

“Nope.”

“What did you expect, Keith?” Shiro asked. Keith groaned and put his bayard back to his belt, deactivated and harmless. He muttered something that sounded a lot like ‘kids these days’.

“Your friends are all super cool, Hunk!” Lance beamed, turning back to Hunk. “You must have a lot of fun together.”

Hunk smiled. “Yeah, we do. It’s even nicer now that you’re here.”

Lance frowned. “Why?”

Hunk opened his mouth to reply, trying to make his voice sound just a bit less wistful, but it was Pidge who spoke first.

“You wanted to see a badge, right?” she asked, looking mighty pleased with herself. After Lance turned to her and nodded seriously in response, Pidge tapped a button on her screen. Six images popped up, each of them holding one of their faces along with some small print Hunk couldn’t make out. All of them had the word ‘police’ printed like a watermark across the image.

They almost looked real. With the time and resources she’d had in her disposal, Pidge had really pulled off a miracle.

Lance disagreed, apparently. He made a disbelieving and disappointed face. “That's a badge? I guess they look different with Space Police, they’re just.. kinda lame. But I guess I believe you now, Hunkman.”

“Did Lance just call you Hunkman? Why did you get a nickname?”

“He called me Alien Hunk before. I guess this is an improvement.”

“Hunk is a cryptid: confirmed.”

“Shut up, Keith.”

Hunk was about to ask what kind of cryptid Keith classified him as, but Lance tugged on his sleeve and waited for him to look down. He pursed his lips nervously. “Hey, Hunk? Is this mission thing going to take long? Could I go back to see my mom and ask her to make me a snack in case I don’t make it back by dinner?”

Coran made a short, distressed squeak at the back of his throat and in his peripheral vision, Hunk saw Keith’s lips pull taut over his lips as he grimaced.

It wasn’t Hunk, but Shiro who reacted to Lance’s worries first. He kneeled so he was on eye level with Lance, an understanding smile plastered on his face. “I’m afraid that this might take a bit longer than that, buddy. But don’t worry, we’ll have fun here and then you’ll get to go back home. We just need to finish an important Space Cop mission.”

“Okay.” Lance nodded, slowly. “But I should call my mom, or she’ll get mad I’m not at dinner to help.”

“She, uh. She knows already,” Shiro said, but the words came out strained. “This is important, so she gave you permission to stay with us for a few days. Would you help us save Earth, Lance?”

Shiro sounded confident in his question, like the promises of a space mission that would save Earth would surely be the hook they needed to get this child version of the Blue Paladin on board with the fact that he woke up surrounded by newfound strangers. It didn’t. Instead, Lance latched onto Shiro’s words, and apprehension made home in the curl of his frown.

“Save Earth? From what?” Lance asked. He sounded frightened, now. “Is my family in danger? What’s this mission? _Why am I here?”_

Shiro’s eyes darted to Hunk, a pleading for help because Lance’s lower lip was suddenly quivering and seeing Lance as a scared kid was overwhelming the Black Paladin fast. Hunk would have laughed if it weren’t for the tears budding in the corners of his best friend’s eyes.

He kneeled, too, and put his arms around Lance’s tiny shoulders cautiously, ready to pull back at the first hint of panic. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, don’t worry. Everything is going to be just fine, believe me. Your family is safe and sound, and they're all going to be really proud of you.”

Lance wiped his face to the back of his hand. “For real?”

Hunk smiled, “Yeah, bud. We’ll get you back to your family in no time. But would you like to tag along for the special space mission first?”

“You’ll take me back when it’s done? And then everyone will be safe?”

“Yes.”

“And it won’t take long?”

“No, it won’t.”

Lance took a pause to consider this, and based on the look on his face, Hunk could already guess what his next concern would be. As he expected, Lance hunched a bit, suddenly looking unsure. “And you really need _me_ to do this, not someone else? If this is so important that Earth is in danger, someone else might be better.”

Hunk thought he heard Shiro squeak at that, which would also have been hilarious under any other circumstances. He smiled reassuringly to Lance. “Yeah, you’re the only one. We’re all absolutely sure, and we really need your help. You’ll be a hero, Lance!”

Lance seemed hesitant for a full second, and then he nodded, the motion purposefully over-exaggerated and large. He grinned up at Hunk. “Yeah, alright, I’ll do it! I always wanted to go to space, it’s so big and the stars are pretty and aliens live there!”

Hunk smiled back and ruffled Lance’s hair. “I know, buddy. It’s all pretty cool.”

“When do we leave? I want to pack my own clothes. I mean, this shirt is nice and all but it’s _huge!_ And it kinda smells.”

Hunk, Shiro and Pidge laughed a bit at the displeased look on his face, but no one answered Lance’s question, because no one wanted to tell Lance how far from home they actually were. Thankfully, Coran sneaked into the conversation like a flamberrolous roiveter in shallow waters, or something along those lines. Hunk liked to listen to Coran’s stories, it was like watching Crocodile Hunter or Animal Planet, only in space.

 _Alien Planet, hosted by Coran._ Now that was a thought.

“So, how old might you be, Lance?” He piped up.

Forgetting all about his question, Lance grinned proudly and held up six fingers, or, six and a half. One finger was raised only half way. “I’m almost seven! I get to ride on the front seat and everything when the car’s not full.”

“You must be quite the reliable sprout, then,” Coran commended, even though Hunk knew he probably didn’t have the slightest idea what a car was. “Now that your joining us is all mulled over and a settled matter, would you like to have a nourishment break? You can sample some of our healthy food goo.”

“Goo?” “What is that?”

“Why, it’s the perfect source of energy for growing young Alteans, and humans too, I’m sure!”

Lance took one look at the plateful Coran was handing him, and it didn’t take a genius to spot his valiantly hidden disgust. Hunk was absently reminded of Lance’s mom ranting about how they needed to be more polite to their hosts as Lance gulped and took the offered plate, albeit he turned almost as green as the food itself.

Lance swiped his finger in the goo and tasted it, only to promptly spit it out. “Is this poison?! That doesn’t taste good, ew, at all. I’m sorry mister, but you really should take cooking lessons.”

Despite the human’s amusement – Lance said what they all thought, really - Coran seemed shocked. He took the plate away, muttering something about it possibly being poisonous to human children. Lance was wiping his tongue off on his palm to try to get rid of the taste.

Coran turned to Keith, pulling up a blue holo-screen he could take notes on. “That… That doesn’t appear to be something human children enjoy. What do your young use for sustenance, then?” he asked, “I can check and see if we have anything suitable for fledglings.”

“Oh, that’s easy, kids eat… Okay no, I have no clue.” Keith shrugged. “Lance, what do you like to eat?”

“Pizza.”

“Pizza?” Coran repeated, putting too much emphasis on the first syllable. “What might that be?”

“It’s heaven on a plate,” Pidge replied without missing a beat. “I would fucking murder a man for a slice.”

“Pidge,” Shiro said, amused but stern, “language.”

“What, you’ve never minded before — Oh. Right.” Pidge looked flustered. “Sorry, Lance.”

Lance was laughing into his hand, “You said a bad word.”

“I did.”

“And your dad told you off.”

“He did — no, wait?” Pidge stammered, spreading her arms wide in protest. “My _what?”_

“Your dad? Isn’t that your dad?” Lance asked innocently.

At this point, Pidge’s face was as red as a turnip, and Shiro looked very much torn between laughing or maybe fleeing the scene. Lance just looked confused.

“We don’t look alike, at all.” Pidge’s brow furrowed in annoyance. “Why do you think we’re family?”

Lance slapped his hand to his forehead melodramatically and rolled his eyes, making it abundantly clear how stupid he thought that question to be. “Family doesn’t have to look the same, duh. Mine doesn’t.”

Pidge huffed out a laugh. “Fine. But he’s still not my dad, sheesh.”

Hunk laughed, too, and Lance grinned, pleased with all the attention he was showered with. From the corner of his eye, Hunk spotted Allura talking fast with Coran about something. She gestured at something on a screen in front of them, movements brittle and stilted, jaw clenched and brow furrowed. Something was amiss.

Hunk was distracted from all of that by Lance’s joyous cries. He was sitting on Shiro’s shoulders now, with Keith following them closely. Hunk walked over to them, forgetting all about the Princess and whatever was bothering her.

Shiro sounded a lot happier than Hunk had heard him for days. “We’re going to go ransack Keith’s closet, try and see if anything might fit Lance. Wanna come with?”

“Sure.”

They found some old clothes at the back of Keith’s closet, and they looked a bit big on Lance, but Keith was a beanpole anyway, so. It worked, in a way. Once they rolled up the sleeves and the cuffs of his pants, Lance could actually walk without tripping on his clothes, which was a clear improvement.

That done, they settled on the couch and the beanbag-like plants Pidge and Hunk had found on one of the planets they’d freed some weeks ago. They were soft and squishy and made weird humming noises at random intervals, and they were the most comfortable thing in the whole Caste. Lance hogged the biggest one and hopped up and down on it.

Allura and Pidge and Coran joined them shortly, too, and Pidge got to cracking with the files she’d stolen from the Galrans. She was getting closer to cracking the encryption, but the files were large –´large enough that Hunk almost didn’t want to know what they would reveal.

None the wiser, Lance chatted with Shiro about the Castle and the food goo and about how the Paladins must have been ninjas to sneak him out of his bed without anyone noticing or Lance waking up. Shiro dodged most of his questions, thankfully.

Getting reacquainted with someone you’d known for years was unnerving, Hunk learned as Lance told them his favourite colour – blue, shockingly – and his favourite music – Spice Girls – and his favourite... _everything_. Hunk knew all this by heart, already.

All the while, Allura sat on the couch, flipping through what Hunk thought was a status report on the damage done to the Castle yesterday. Her brow was creased and her lips pulled in a tight line. Hunk saw a blinking red light in the report, and he regretted not asking about her worries earlier.

“This is unacceptable,” she muttered to herself. The conversations stopped as Allura stood up with a stern look. “Forgive me, but I must interrupt. Paladins, I have the reports from the damage dealt to the Castle last night, and this does not look good. The Castle is badly damaged, and its defensive systems are working on only half the power while we make repairs. We cannot fend off attackers with the particle barrier alone.”

Oblivious to the strain in her voice and the tenseness of her shoulders, Lance did a couple of kicks and punches in the air, whooping happily. “So we get to fight bad guys? Or can I drive a police car? What’s a Voltron, anyway?”

“You truly can’t remember?” Allura asked, incredulous. “Voltron is the battleship you ought to pilot, Lance, you and the other Paladins.”

“Princess,” Shiro said, and it sounded like a warning. “I don’t think this is the time…”

“When will it be time, then? For the past days we’ve done nothing but despaired over our mission, and now that we’re done, the Galra are surely just as desperate to find us. If we cannot form Voltron when they arrive and ambush us, we will perish.” She said all of that with a sense of certainty that made the hair on the back of Hunk’s neck stand up.

“I cannot stress this enough, but we must test your compatibility with the Blue Lion as fast as possible, Lance. And I would like to run a few simulations on the training deck this afternoon, if possible, to see if there’s something your shrunken body is not capable of handling.”

“Shrunk? I’m not shrunk. I’m tall for my age!” Lance snapped back, and okay, that’s what he took away from all of that? Hunk saw Keith roll his eyes, although he looked wary, too.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about, dude.”

“But it is!” Coran interjected. “It’s understandable that you’re startled, given your new size, but I’m sure you’ll do splendidly, Lance. Even though you’re now some terlaks shorter, you should be just tall enough to reach the Blue Lion’s controls,” he mused. “With slight adjustments, I think you’ll be able to handle most of the commands when we fight.”

“Fight?” Lance repeated. “What fight?”

“The fight against the Galran army, of course!”

Lance gave no reply, but he sat up straighter, his knees tucked firmly to his chest. Hunk saw a small shiver run up his spine, and he had to wonder if the Alteans had the slightest clue about what Lance’s new age meant, really.

If they did, they didn’t show it. Instead, Allura’s voice turned a fraction more urgent; harsher. “What are we to do if we’re called to aid a planet, and we encounter another one of those Robeasts? We, and the entire planet, might be destroyed without Voltron.”

“What?” Lance repeated. He sounded scared now, and Hunk would have told the Princess to shut up if Shiro hadn’t beat him to it.

“Princess, this is not the time or the place. Please, calm down.” Shiro’s words were slow and measured, like steps on thin ice. “We can protect the Castle by ourselves for the time being, but there’s no need to scare anyone.”

Allura didn’t seem to hear him. “What are we to do if Lotor takes someone else, this time?” she reminded them. “It was terribly difficult to break through their defences with only four Lions. What are we to do with three?”

“Princess, _stop.”_

Something in Shiro’s voice broke through to Allura, and she followed his line of sight to Lance who stared back, shaking like a leaf. Worry and regret flicked on Allura’s face, but it was soon locked under a mask of resigned indifference.

“Fair enough.” Allura sat back down. “We’ll talk of strategies later, then, but we must be able to defend the universe even with one Paladin lacking.”

“We know, Princess. And we will.”

Hunk shared a look with Pidge, who looked just as disconcerted and shaken by Allura’s rant than he did. No matter how badly timed her talk had been, she’d made good points. Yellow was still out of commission while Hunk made repairs, and Red had suffered some damage as well. If the Galra were to find them now, they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves, let alone anyone else.

Lance shuddered next to Hunk, clenching his hands into tiny fists. “Why did she talk about other planets? Are we not on Earth?” Lance asked, sounding so vulnerable that Hunk would have squeezed him if it wasn’t for the way Lance was already cowering away from everyone’s touch. “I.. I want to go home now, I… This isn’t fun anymore.”

Hunk didn’t know what to tell him.

Coran did, it seemed. He stood up and walked past Lance to the wall, where he stopped. “I suppose you thought we were on your planet? That’s not true, we’re far away in space. You are a guest on our Castle-ship.” Coran tapped on a couple of buttons, and a panel on the wall turned translucent, showing them the depths of space. He gave a small, sad smile. “I figure it must be a lot to take in.”

Lance gasped, and his eyes widened in shock.

“They’re so pretty. Just like I always imagined.” Lance stood up and walked to the panel. Hunk stood up, meaning to follow him, but soft sobs hitched in Lance’s throat and Hunk’s heart skipped about thirty beats. Lance stared at the stars twinkling brightly in the distance, wide-eyed and mouth hanging open. “We’re… We’re pretty far away from home, huh. I’m not gonna make it to dinner tomorrow, either.”

Hunk really wanted to hug him just then. “Yeah, you won’t. Sorry bud.”

Lance nodded, slowly, as if to give himself time to process it all. He reached out with his small hand, brushing the tips of his fingers against the panel, across the stars scattered on the vast expanse of space. “I should be happy. This is my dream, I always wanted to go to space, I just… I didn’t want to go without my family, not all alone!” Lance buried his face in his hands, and he broke down in tears. He dissolved into a lieu of muttered Spanish, spoken so fast and so low that all Hunk could grasp was the raw emotion the words dripped with.

Hunk had to look away. Being a Paladin of Voltron was scary even as a nineteen-year-old, and Lance had already had issues with it as a teenager. Lance was now six, and as Coran said, this was an awful lot to take in. It couldn’t be easy to suddenly wake up in a strange place, surrounded by people you didn’t remember, and then to learn that you were thousands of lightyears away from home and everything you knew.

Shiro walked over and wrapped an arm around Lance’s shoulders. He pulled Lance closer, so that he could cry into his shirt. He patted the child on his back and murmured soft words in his ear, and after a while, Lance ran out of tears. Hunk felt like crying, too. This was all too much.

“It’s been brought to my attention that I was a tad harsh,” Allura said, her voice soft and regretful. He looked at Lance, waiting until he peeked back at her, and offered him a smile. “My apologies. I think a break is in order.”

“Indeed, I think some fun is way overdue!” Coran said, grinning widely at Lance who was still hiding behind Shiro, swallowing back the last of his tears. “How about you and me go tour the Castle Ship some? I'll show you all the finest hiding spots and the playground, too, if that's alright?”

“I want to see that, yeah.” Lance wiped his face on his hand and nodded cautiously. He looked at Allura with red rimmed eyes. “But after that, could we— Can we go home, to Earth? It’s not far, right?”

“It’s…” To her credit, Allura composed herself quickly. “Once the Castle is repaired, I can see about opening a wormhole to Earth, yes.”

“Really, you can do that?” Lance sounded so hopeful that it was almost painful to hear.

“Absolutely,” Allura convinced him. Lance surprised her by running up to her and wrapping his small arms around her waist, smearing snot all over her dress and slobbering his thanks directly to her bellybutton. Assuming Alteans had bellybuttons.

“Thank you, ‘Lura. You’re the best and the prettiest and the coolest! I really want to go home.”

Allura seemed to be at a loss for words, and she pushed Lance off of her as gently as she could. “That’s.. Quite alright, Lance. No need to thank me.”

“Marvellous! Now that that’s settled, how about that tour?” Coran stood up and reached out a hand for Lance to take. “Maybe we can find some sweets for you, if you’d like?”

Lance wiped the last of his tears on Hunk’s shirt, and he looked up with a wide grin. “Yeah! Let’s go!”

“I'll go with you,” Keith said. “I wanna see what the playground is like before we let a kid loose there.”

“Good idea,” Shiro said. “We’ll join you later.”

“That was stupid, I didn’t cry or anything. We’re going to have a fun space adventure!” Lance pumped his fist in the air, and Coran started leading them out of the lounge.

Hunk’s gut panged with unease at the way Lance was putting himself down for crying, and he knew he couldn’t let it slide. He kneeled down and tugged on Lance’s arm to get the kid’s attention. When he had it, Hunk pulled Lance into a tight hug, cupping the back of his head with one hand. “It’s okay to be sad, Lance, I get homesick too sometimes. You’re being so brave, bud.”

Lance hugged Hunk back tentatively. He grinned, like it was all water under the bridge, but Hunk could feel the uncertainty underlying in the tense curve of his spine. “You’re weird, Hunkman. Of course I’m brave. I’m here to save Earth, so I gotta be!”

“Yeah. I guess you do.” Hunk squeezed him one more time, and then Lance pushed him away because hugging was apparently an uncool activity according to leading six-year-old experts around the universe. He ran to catch up to Keith and Coran, who each took one of his hands so Lance could bounce high with each step. Hunk wanted to go with them, he truly did. But he needed to have a word with Allura, first.

“Wow, he really is a kid,” Pidge said once Lance and his chaperones were out of earshot. “Isn’t it weird how he was less loud as a child than as a grownup? Or, when he was bigger. Lance’s not a grownup.”

“Just give it time,” Hunk promised. He sighed. “It’s so weird seeing him as a kid again – it’s been a long time. It’s weird that he doesn’t remember any of us.”

“We’ll get him back to normal,” Shiro assured. “Like you said, it takes time.”

“He was scared so easy, too; I wish I caught that on video!” Pidge griped, but Hunk could tell she didn’t really mean anything by it. “I didn’t know Lance was such a cry-baby. But that hasn’t changed much, huh?”

“Pidge, he’s only six, you’d be spooked by that too,” Hunk said, “What was that all about anyway, Princess? You can’t just go spouting war strategies on kids, geez.”

“I was just about to ask,” Allura said, sounding a bit frazzled and confused. “It’s obvious that I do not know enough about human children to successfully converse with one, and as Altean children are incredibly rare, my knowledge really falls short. How old is Lance now, exactly? Can he do battle at all?”

“Whoa.”

“Princess, no.”

Pidge cupped her chin contemplatively. “If Lance is six… Wait, what’s Altean for a year? It’s like… Well, if I sum it up real quick, it’s about 2190 quintats.”

“But that’s only a bit over three isouvs! He’s an infant! I thought he was at least an adolescent, closer to becoming of age.” Allura gasped, suddenly looking aghast. “I _… I scared a baby_.”

“That’s fine, Princess. Coran has Lance nicely distracted, and Keith’s with them. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

Allura nodded. “You’re probably right, Shiro. Thank you all.” She cleared her throat and straightened her posture, and Hunk watched as the steel returned to her eyes and the startled alien was side lined by the Princess of Altea. “While Lance is distracted with the playground, we should get started with the repairs. I need the Castle in working order if I am to take Lance home.”

Hunk grinned and Pidge fixed her glasses, and they set to work. The repairs were a no-brainer, really; all they took was time and sweat. A broken wire here, a system patch there — within an hour they were well on their way to getting the particle barrier back online, which had been unanimously declared priority number one.

Hunk swiped sweat off his brow and shared a drink pouch with Pidge. “It’s coming along nicely. The generators need a small charge or quintessence to get back online again, but Allura should be able to fix that.”

Whatever Pidge said back was drowned under the sound of the communications screen coming to life. Coran’s face took up the entire screen, and Pidge promptly dropped the drink pouch.

Coran was sweating like he had a case of the slipperies again, and Keith was running around behind him, trying to catch… something.

“Paladins,” Coran started. “If you’d join us in the playground, we’d… I could use a break, to be honest. Human young sure are lively.”

“He’s being a brat, you mean.” Pidge didn’t bother to phrase that like a question.

“No, he’s not misbehaving, he’s—” Something crashed loudly behind Coran. “Well, yes. Please make haste.”

Pidge groaned and Hunk pulled her up. “Lance owes me so many chores after all this. I’m a Paladin of Voltron, not a babysitter.”

“I think we’ll be both for a while, Pidge.” Hunk chuckled. “C’mon, let’s go before they trash it.”

He’d been kind of intrigued to see the playground, anyway. What could a Roflorkling be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, you should know that I changed the ending so it wasn't a cliffie. No need to thank me. I'm kind of just shamelessly inventing Altean words, I don't have a training bot. If someone here is fluent in Altean, hmu.
> 
> Also, an AU where Coran hosts Alien Planet, Crocodile Hunter style. Picture it. Isn't it glorious? Come say hi to me on [my tumblr](http://shishiswordsman.tumblr.com/), we can talk about silly AUs and the fact that I already made Lance cry in chapter 2
> 
> Betaed by [Emy](http://archiveofourown.org/users/emygrl99/pseuds/emygrl99), without her I would never have posted this because I'm a scaredy cat lol


End file.
